A Comforting Chicken Soup All Year Round!
Herbal chicken soup is something we are all familiar with, but the Koreans have managed to turn it into a cultural icon. The Korean version is less herbal than the Chinese version, which can taste a bit too medicinal. By using fresh ginseng, the flavour comes through subtly, and it really just tastes like a robust and comforting chicken soup.
Samgyetang is traditionally eaten at the peak of summer to fight fatigue and exhaustion. Since Singapore is basically summer all year round, it’s something you can cook regularly.
The star ingredient is ginseng, a herb long used for its medicinal properties. It’s known to fight fatigue and sharpen mental alertness, which is exactly why it gets paired with chicken in a dish meant to rejuvenate you. Round that out with red dates, garlic, and ginger, and you’ve got a soup that’s simple to make, yet feels quite sophisticated on the table.
USA Calrose Rice
Traditionally, the cavity of the chicken is stuffed with glutinous rice, but I found it a little heavy. So in my version, I’m using Calrose rice, a short/medium grain rice that has a lovely toothy texture once cooked. The resulting dish is similar to pao fan, with the plump rice soaking up all the broth. (Check out my Pao Fan recipe also using USA Calrose)
USA Calrose rice is a medium grain variety developed in California. Its name blends “Cal” for California and “rose” from Blue Rose, the rice that inspired it, a true California original. It’s grown by U.S. farmers using water saving methods, so it’s an environmentally sustainable choice too.
I have created over a dozen recipes using USA Calrose rice. It’s versatile enough to go from onigiri to risotto to claypot rice, which makes it a good rice to keep in the pantry.
It’s Easier than you think!
This chicken soup is actually quite easy to make. It just takes time and you will need to specially purchase some of the ingredients. But once you have them in the pantry, it is really easy to do! In this post I’ll share my version of the recipe with a few tweaks I’ve made to suit my own taste.
RECIPE CARD
Ingredients
- Kampung chicken, approx 1 kg, cleaned and cavity trimmed of excess fat
- USA Calrose Rice, 1 cup, soaked for 30 minutes
- Fresh Korean ginseng roots, 1 to 2 (or dried ginseng roots)
- Dried Red Dates, 6 to 8
- Garlic, 4 to 5, whole
- Fresh ginger, 15 g, around 5 slices
- Gardenia Seeds, 5-6 whole (optional)
- Roasted chestnuts, 40 to 50 g
- Dried scallops, 2 Tbsp
- Water or chicken stock, 1.5 litres
- Spring onion, chopped, for garnish
Method
- Clean the chicken by rubbing salt over the skin and cleaning the cavity.
- Drain the soaked Calrose rice and stuff it into the chicken’s cavity along with 2 garlic cloves and 1 to 2 dates. Leave a little room, Calrose expands more than glutinous rice as it cooks.
- Truss the legs together with kitchen string leaving a length of string long enough to hang out of the pot
- Place the chicken breast side up in a deep pot and pour in the 1.5 litres of water or Chicken stock.
- Add the ginseng, remaining dates, remaining garlic, ginger, and the dried scallops.
- Crumble a few roasted chestnuts and add them to the pot.
- Bring to a boil over high heat, then skim off the scum that rises to keep the broth clean.
- Reduce to a gentle simmer, cover, and cook for 1 to 1.5 hours, until the chicken is tender and the rice inside is fully cooked.
- For a thicker broth, fish out a couple of softened chestnuts partway through, mash separately, and stir the paste back into the pot.
- Ladle into bowls with a generous amount of broth, rice, chestnut, ginseng, and dates.
- Garnish with spring onion and serve.
Cooking Notes and Tips
Preparing the Chicken
Try to buy a kampung chicken around 1kg in size. Traditionally, the Koreans use spring chicken, and each person would have their own whole bird. These aren’t so easily available in our supermarkets, and I actually find it easier to cook a larger chicken that can feed a small family instead. Kampung chicken has a sweeter, more flavourful meat, but if you can’t find one, a normal chicken works just fine too.
Make sure to wash the chicken thoroughly. Use salt as an abrasive to clean the skin of the chicken and also make sure to wash the cavity of the chicken, removing any organs that are there. A clean chicken means a cleaner tasting soup!
Stuffing the Chicken
Wash the red dates and give them a gentle squeeze so that they soak up some water. This will make them easier to cook.
Start filling the chicken with dates and garlic cloves, followed by the soaked rice, then the rest of the dates and garlic cloves. Make sure not to overfill the chicken, as the rice will expand when it cooks.
Secure the cavity with a skewer. This is an optional step, but I like to do it as it keeps things neat.
I also like to tie the chicken with butcher’s twine as it makes it easier to move the chicken around.
Putting it together
Try to get hold of fresh ginseng for a more authentic flavour. Dried ginseng tends to be stronger and make them easier soup taste more like a Chinese Ginseng Chicken soup. You can easily find them online.
I added some dried scallops for umami, gardenia seeds for colour, roasted chestnuts for body and sliced ginger to remove any off flavours from the chicken. These are all optional ingredients which are good to have but not essential.
Boiling the chicken
Once all the ingredients are added to the pot, bring it to a boil, then lower the heat so there is a gentle simmer. Skim off any scum that floats to the top.
Simmer for 1.25 to 1.5 hours, depending on how soft you like your chicken.
Once it is almost ready, you can transfer everything to a serving pot. You can, of course, serve it directly in the cooking pot if you have something appropriate. I like to transfer the chicken because the soup usually covers it completely, and I prefer a smaller pot where the chicken can actually be seen.
Conclusion
Hope I’ve given you inspiration to make your own samgyetang at home. It is really quite straight forward isn’t it? You will definitely be rewarded with “Oos” and “Ahs” around the table as you cut up the chicken at the table, exposing the toothy rice that has soaked up all that nutritious soup.
Check out other recipes that are perfect with USA Calrose Rice:
This post is made in collaboration with USA Rice Federation and using Okome Shortgrain rice by Topseller Pte Ltd.
https://www.facebook.com/USARice.SG/
https://www.facebook.com/okomeshortgrain
https://www.instagram.com/usarice.sg/
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate marketing links where if you were to click and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
